5 reasons customers leave your online store without buying
If you are not happy with how well your e-commerce store is selling and you have no idea in terms of what shall be done about it, here is the list of issues composed by Head of Web Testing Department at a1qa, Elena Yakimova, that are likely to prevent your customers from making a purchase.
1. Your website is underperforming
According to the study conducted by the University of London, 90% of users would stop using an app if it is underperforming. Performance – whether it’s pages taking too long to load or browsing being slow and difficult, or maybe the pictures won’t display – is the top frustration of respondents.
2. The functionality of the website doesn’t respond to the customer’s needs
Despite the large variety of e-commerce websites and products they offer, all of them share the core functionality: search, list of products with the detailed description, product range filters and sorting, shopping cart, customers’ reviews. If any of this is missing or doesn’t work as expected, the customer will stumble and feel dissatisfied.
3. The payment process takes long and orders can’t be easily returned
Do you ask your customers to register before making a purchase? How long does it take them to complete the transaction? Is there a try-before-you-buy option? Do you offer various payment methods?
All these issues are very important and should be taken into consideration when developing a customer journey mapping. Keep it in mind: today’s users aim to get things done as quickly as possible.
4. The content of the website isn’t adapted for the target audience
60% of consumers will stay more positive about a brand after consuming content from it. Obviously, if the content isn’t localized to the customer’s region, it will pose extra difficulties and user experience will be damaged.
5. The website doesn’t work in the client’s browser / device / operating system
Customers will use different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, IE, etc.), devices (desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc.), and OS (Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac, etc.) to access your e-commerce website. To satisfy them all you have to make sure the website runs smoothly in any combination.
By the way, mobile users are five times more likely to abandon the site if it’s not optimized for mobile. 83% say a seamless experience across all devices is somewhat or very important.
Obviously, the stakes are high for any business that depends on its website or mobile app. Addressing professional testers may help to get rid of the numerous shortcomings. Tech-savvy testing engineers will perform comprehensive testing to make your website deliver maximum value.
How can solid testing help?
- A few seconds between clicking on the link and presentation can impair the use of the website. Performance testing will help answer the following questions:
- Is the product ready for launch?
- What is the maximum load the system can stand?
- Why is the system’s performance low?
- What are the bottlenecks?
- Can the system stand the everyday workload?
- How many concurrent users can the system handle?
Specialists will use performance testing tools to measure the average performance, detect all reasons that prolong the final presentation of your web page to the customer, and find out whether your website will survive the peak loads. By the way, in case you’ve missed it: here is the article on testing e-commerce before the peak loads. It’s well worth a read too.
- Every user covers his or her way before clicking a Pay button. To make this journey successful, a UX testing specialist will get into the customer’s shoes to complete all the steps and check them for inconveniences or ambiguities.
- No e-commerce website functions without payments. After all, this is what allows users to purchase the desired items. Different payment types should be verified, e.g. Credit Card, Bank Transfers, Paypal, etc. Also, QA engineers should check whether the credit card details are stored securely and there will no data leakage occur.
- Localization testing is an indispensable part of the e-commerce testing. If you think that localization is translating, you’re only partially right. Taxes, product returns and refunds, financial transactions, currencies must all be localized. And again, software localization testing specialists should take the responsibility.
- Complex cross browser testing and adaptation for mobile are highly important for the e-commerce project. The professional software testing team will set up the right environment to test the product against relevant software and hardware combinations.
As you see, there’s a lot of work required to create and maintain an e-commerce website that will generate income. To make your customers come back, it’s vital to provide them with a user-friendly, fast, and informative e-commerce. Don’t neglect testing. It will help reveal all the drawbacks and timely eliminate them.
a1qa has a great experience in assuring the quality of websites. For example, this is the case study of how a1qa team assured the quality of the UK biggest fashion and home goods online store.
Contact a1qa today to make your e-commerce endeavor successful!
